The Impresario and the Employee Who Could Not Communicate With His Peers

I worked at The Franklin Institute Research Laboratories in Philadelphia from July 13, 1970 until the summer of 1979.  I was hired at age 16 as a temporary employee in the summer before I entered my senior year of high school.  I resigned to attend to attend law school, at age 25.

In 1973 the Director of the Biomedical group, Bruce H. Kleinstein, Ph.D., hired me to work in his division.  I had impressed him as a person of diligence who was capable of working hard.  I worked in the Biomedical group from 1973 until my resignation in the summer of 1979.

A number of employees who were hired by Dr. Kleinstein later became accomplished in their intellectual field or were related to persons who were accomplished in their field.  I have no idea whether this reflects anything other than pure chance.

Catherine Ingraham.  In 1974 Dr. Kleinstein hired Catherine Ingraham, a relatively recent college graduate who had yet to embark on her career in architecture.  Catherine Ingraham was employed as editor of a federally-sponsored publication: The Biological Effects of Nonionizing Electromagnetic Radiation.

Catherine Ingraham is a Professor of Architecture in the graduate architecture program at Pratt Institute in New York City, a program for which she was chair from 1999-2005. She is the author of Architecture, Animal, Human: The Asymmetrical Condition (Routledge 2006), Architecture and the Burdens of Linearity (Yale University Press 1998), and was co-editor of Restructuring Architectural Theory (Northwestern University Press 1986). From 1991-98, Ingraham was an editor, with Michael Hays and Alicia Kennedy, of Assemblage: A Critical Journal of Architecture and Design Culture. Dr. Ingraham has published extensively in academic journals and book collections and lectured at architecture schools nationally and internationally. Throughout her career, she has organized and participated in symposia that advance serious discussions about architecture; in February 2008, she ran a conference at Columbia University on animate life and form entitled "Part Animal." Dr. Ingraham has held academic appointments at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Iowa State University and been a visiting professor at Princeton, the GSD, and Columbia University. She has been the recipient of a NYSCA grant; a CCA fellowship, two Graham Foundation grants, a two-year SOM research fellowship, an NEA grant; and four MacDowell Colony writing residencies. In 2001, Ingraham was the winner, with architect Laurie Hawkinson, of a design competition and building commission for the Museum of Women's History in New York. Ingraham earned her doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She is married, with one son, and is one of eight, or possibly nine, great-granddaughters of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Michelle Marchesano.  In about 1975 Dr. Kleinstein hired Michelle Marchesano (now Michelle Marchesano Dugan) to work as an editorial assistant on a federally-sponsored publication: Carcinogenesis Abstracts.  Mrs. Dugan got married in 1977 and later had sons Leonardo Dugan and Peter Dugan, both academically-gifted individuals and accomplished musicians.

Irene Jacobs.  In about 1975 Dr. Kleinstein hired Irene Jacobs to work as editor of a federally-funded publication: Gastroenterology Abstracts.  Mrs. Jacobs is married to David Jacobs, a Temple University Professor and a leading authority on so-called "experiencers," individuals who report having had encounters with extra-terrestrial aliens.

Sharon White Glick.  In 1976 Dr. Kleinstein hired Sharon White Glick to work as editor of a federally-funded publication: Cancer Therapy Abstracts.  Mrs. Glick's father, David White, was a professor of physical chemistry at The University of Pennsylvania and served as chemistry department chair at Penn.

Silba Cunningham Dunlop.  In 1976 Dr. Kleinstein hired Silba Cunningham-Dunlop (nee Frischauer-Horvath) to write a federally-sponsored monograph on the carcinogenic effects of ionizing radiation.  Mrs. Cunningham-Dunlop is the daughter of the novelist and historian, Paul Frischauer.

Anne [last name?].  In 1974 Dr. Kleinstein hired Anne [last name?] to work as editor of Gastroenterology Abstracts.  Anne was related in some way to the novelist James Mitchener.

The Government of the District of Columbia determined in 1993 that my last employer, the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, formed a genuine and good faith belief that I had difficulty communicating with my peers, a factor that rendered me not suitable for employment.  The employer alleges that it learned about this disability only after three-and-one-half years of exemplary work performance.  The employer acknowledged that I "inspired" my coworkers.  Freedman v. D.C. Department of Human Rights, D.C.C.A. no. 96-CV-961 (Sept. 1, 1998).